Less than a year after cheetahs were reintroduced to India in September 2022, media outlets started writing obituaries of Project Cheetah, calling it a 'colossal failure', Project Cheetah becoming 'toothless' and whatnot.
It was because, of a total of 20 cheetahs introduced in Kuno National Park (NP) of Madhya Pradesh (MP), eight from Namibia in September 2022, followed by 12 more from South Africa in February 2023, nine had died in a year.
However, soon, the critics were proven wrong. From a low of 15 cheetahs in Kuno in August 2023, the cheetah numbers have more than doubled today.
Jorhat was supposed to be the beginning of a comeback story. Congress's surprise victory in the Hindu-majority constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections had opposition leaders speaking optimistically about cracking the BJP's dominance in rural Assam.
